There are myriad ways this cruel legislation would hurt low-income and middle-class folks—all in the name of giving tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy—but we are particularly concerned by how the proposal could impact women and families. Not only does the bill cut key deductions that help Mainers make ends meet, but it tries to sneak in major policy changes that have nothing to do with “tax reform,” like gutting Obamacare and inserting anti-abortion language into an obscure provision on college savings. Bottom line: The tax bill is an abomination and it must be defeated.

From eliminating the student loan interest deduction and certain childcare credits to raising taxes on families that have serious and costly medical conditions, the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” includes many provisions that will make it harder for lower-income women and families to get by.Multiple analyses have shown that the tax plan’s biggest beneficiaries will be Wall Street titans and the super-rich, while middle- and lower-income households will see few, if any, benefits.

And then there’s the stealth attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate through the tax bill. Putting aside that the some members of Congress just can’t seem to accept the fact that the American public doesn’t want Obamacare to go away, this is a dangerous proposal that would result in an estimated 13 million people losing their health coverage.

According to the Maine Center for Economic Policy, without the individual mandate, Mainers could see their premiums go up by as much as $3,000 in Maine’s more economically-depressed regions and the state’s uninsured rate would go up from 6.8 percent to 11.8 percent within 10 years.

When folks lose their health insurance, it puts more pressure on organizations like ours—Title X-funded health care providers who serve low-income, uninsured patients every day. When you consider that the Trump administration is simultaneously waging war against birth control affordability and family planning providers (not to mention the “anti-abortion Easter egg” tucked into the tax bill), you have a perfect storm with women’s health and autonomy in its eye.

Call Senator Collins TODAY and urge her to vote NO on the obscene tax bill. Urge her instead to support proposals that improve the health and well-being of Maine women and families. Together, we can make our voices heard.

Any day now, we expect the Trump administration to issue its Title X Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA)—and to be honest, we’re a little nervous.

After all, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) political appointee overseeing the Title X program, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs Teresa Manning, has publicly opposed the use of federal funds for family planning and stated that contraception is ineffective. The former anti-abortion lobbyist also opposes emergency contraception. What’s more, a memo leaked last month suggested that advisers to the Trump administration are seeking to slash Title X funding by half—and/or to promote the “fertility awareness” method of birth control in place of other, more effective forms of contraception.

The National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, of which we are a member, sees the likelihood of an attack on Title X as “High;” the Guttmacher Institute said in October: “Never in its history has the nation’s family planning safety net been in such jeopardy as it is today.”

You can see why we’re not exactly optimistic.

There are a few ways HHS could go after family planning providers through Title X:

By cutting or eliminating Title X funding altogether;

By altering the parameters of the grant to include so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” (which use tactics of misinformation and deception to prevent women from accessing abortion care) as eligible entities or “tiering” providers (giving preference to public health departments or primary care providers in order to shut out non-profit organizations like MFP);

By putting onerous conditions on Title X recipients—and their patients—such as requiring parental notification and consent for teens seeking contraceptive care, a policy repeatedly rejected by the Maine Legislature;

By instituting what’s known as the Domestic Gag Rule, which would bar Title X-funded health care providers from talking about abortion as one of three choices available to pregnant patients who come to us for comprehensive options counseling.

Under any of the above scenarios, the Maine Family Planning network of providers (18 MFP clinics, plus four Planned Parenthood sites, 20 Federally-Qualified Health Centers, and five school-based health centers) would be hamstrung in its ability to provide a full range of contraceptive and reproductive health care services to low-income, uninsured, and underinsured women, men, and teens around the state.

We are staying vigilant as the right wing’s latest attack on women’s health care looms. Stay tuned.

Maine Family Planning is part of a statewide coalition working to pass Medicaid expansion on November 7th. Here, our community organizer Cait Vaughan shares a little more about why Yes on 2 is a vote for Maine women.

As the community organizer for Maine Family Planning, I’ve spent the last couple of months talking about little else but Medicaid expansion and the opportunity to vote YES on statewide ballot Question 2 on November 7th. Along with our incredible UMaine Orono intern and MFP volunteers, I have been making phone calls, speaking at events, engaging patients in the clinic waiting room, and (most importantly) knocking on doors to encourage Mainers to vote in favor of expanding this critical program. Back in May, I wrote about Medicaid as a feminist issue and how this joint federal and state-funded program is a crucial aspect of the family planning safety net. With Election Day rapidly approaching, I wanted to focus in a bit more on why we at MFP view expanding Medicaid—known as MaineCare in our state—as a vote in favor of women’s health and autonomy.

MFP serves roughly 21,000 patients each year across our 18 clinics that span 12 of the state’s 16 counties. Roughly a quarter of our patients receive Medicaid right now, which makes sense, considering that women receiving Medicaid are more likely than those on private insurance to receive gynecological care at a family planning clinic or Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) instead of a private physician’s office. Women receiving Medicaid are also significantly more likely than those with private insurance or uninsured women to speak with their providers about important issues like contraceptives, sexual history, HIV, and domestic violence. Another 38% of patients who visit our clinics utilize the sliding scale payment option, largely due to a lack of access to health insurance. This means that many women rely on us as their sole health care provider, and they are some of the folks who will be most positively impacted by expansion. While our clinicians provide excellent and compassionate care, patients need access to the full range of health care services in order to lead lives of dignity, opportunity, and self-determination. Those qualities truly encapsulate our greater mission as a health care provider and advocate in the feminist tradition of improving women’s lives.

One of our greatest contributions as a provider might be the advances we’ve made—via telehealth services—to improve access to sexual and reproductive health care in Maine’s rural and low-income communities. Voting Yes on 2 would allow us to go even farther. Half of the state’s current MaineCare recipients live in rural areas, and MaineCare provides coverage for many telehealth services (not currently inclusive of abortion care). Expanding Medicaid could complement the steps we’ve already taken to ensure that crucial health care services are available to our patients in rural towns like Fort Kent, Machias, and Rumford. MaineCare expansion can assist patients in overcoming economic barriers to health care that are compounded by geography and a sorely lacking public transportation infrastructure.

As a Title X provider, it’s also important to note that Medicaid has become the most significant public funding source for family planning services in the past decade. Medicaid’s funding for family planning outpaces even federal Title X, which is consistently targeted for cuts and has not been able to keep up with the rising costs of delivering care. We experience firsthand the many ways that access to a quality public health insurance program like Medicaid supports improvements in women’s health, the benefits of which have a ripple effect on our entire statewide community. We hope you’ll join us in voting Yes on 2 on Tuesday, November 7th and take an important step in making women’s health in Maine the way it should be.

If you’d like to volunteer a few hours of your time to support Yes on 2, you can join a special canvass of Friends of Repro Rights jointly led by Maine Family Planning & Planned Parenthood this coming Monday, October 30th in Augusta. Find full details & register here.

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